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The aim of this article is to illustrate changes in the artistic paradigm in the 16th century, underpinned by the vast body of literature that has been produced on the subject. On the threshold of this century, the image acquires a new status based on a new conception of shapes, while under the heading of beauty in which the new subjectivity is objectified, it moves away from and rejects the more direct realism of the Quattrocento. The rise of Neoplatonism and the formulation of a new Theory of Art contributed in a decisive way to this change in the artistic paradigm.
Michelangelo’s work (artistic and poetic) was one of the pillars of the new artistic concept, and Francisco de Holanda was one of its exponents, although his treatises were not widely disseminated. According to the new ideological trend, the values of this subject, based on a culture built on the pre-eminence of the object, leave room for the affirmation of a certain aristocratic ideal that privileges individual differentiation, as well as the return in force of the imagination and affectivity, running counter to the exaggerated rationalism of 15th-century Classicism. Upholding its ideal and subjective character, the dominant aesthetic of the Cinquecento gives a new meaning to the image, expressing a stylistic emphasis on volumetric plasticity and spatial composition.
